Tennis coach age thingy...

Hey... I am 15 years o.d and wanted to train 8-10 year olds in my local area during the summer... But I'm not sure if I have to b e a certain age... Could anyone who knows please tell me... thanks... Oh I'm from Ireland... Hope every1 got lots of cards for valentines... I know I didn't...ha

Hey... I am 15 years o.d and wanted to train 8-10 year olds in my local area during the summer... But I'm not sure if I have to b e a certain age... Could anyone who knows please tell me... thanks... Oh I'm from Ireland... Hope every1 got lots of cards for valentines... I know I didn't...ha

First I must backup my friend Jtas and look into the information he has provided, on the other hand, do not despair because of your age. I am impressed that you feel at 15 y.o. you are qualified & capable enough to give training to kids younger than yourself.

I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here for a moment. Let's assume you are competent enough to provide adequate instructions to younger kids, where they can benefit from your tutoring and learn to hit tennis balls fairly consistently at let's say a 2.0 to 2.5Junior Level.

I would advise that you do not seek payment for this but instead utilize this opportunity to train your training skills. In other words, I see no harm in you providing help to kids younger than yourself for the purpose of helping them and in turn they will help you learn from the mistakes you will most certainly make.

As a High School Instructor, I can tell you, no matter how good you think you are, Teaching someone to play isn't for everybody. Some people are just not born Instructors, you have to work very hard at it. It's a skill one never masters, as anyone here who teaches can attest. There are a number of factors that come into consideration, like:

1. First & Foremost - No two people learn the same way. This Rule you'll find in the Tolerance 101 - Book of Teaching.

2. You must be able to demonstrate a variety of styles and at your age, I'd wager you're probably learning them yourself about now.

3. You must compensate for physical differences in your Students, such as teaching the Serve to a very tall person is slightly different than teaching the serve to a very short person.

4. Agility is not a given in most people and a huge part of Tennis is the ability to move rather quickly in a multitude of directions. Hence, you must learn to identify the strengths & weaknesses of your Students' agilities and formulate your lessons accordingly.

5. Endurance is a major factor in Tennis and young Players get tired too. Therefore, your lessons must be devised to meet those requirements and while paying strict attention to what someone can handle. God Forbid someone were to fall down from exhaustion on your watch, you would be held responsible.

Oh there's a lot more but you get the point. If you think all there is to teaching tennis is grabbing your racquet, a couple of cans of balls, heading down to the Courts, meeting up with a few others nd showing them how to hold a racquet in their hand while getting the ball over the Net, is all there is .. well.

My point is not to insult or insinuate but to merely state that if I were you and this is something I wanted to do badly. I'd use this to see what kind of teacher I could actually be someday.

Good Luck .. Let us know how it goes.

Coach

The only acceptable loss is when your opponent was better than you on that given day.
It is never acceptable to lose when your opponent was not.

Playing partner

I do know some coaches will suggest to parents to use someone as a hitting partner for their child. This might be a way to move in the coaching direction for someone and, still receive a small payment.

Thanks for all the comments...There's a camp comming up and there looking for volunteeres to help train younger people... So I think I might do that... Thanks again

Well FedFan ~ It's been a few days and I was wondering how it was going? A week can make a huge difference and I was hoping you didn't get the feeling anybody was trying to simply discourage you from your dreams.

It's all about giving you options as I see it. You're a member of TennisW and I care about each & every Member. If you decide that's what you want to do, then the next step will be let's see what you'll need to make it happen.

Personally, I'm impressed that you have these ideas so young. I was no where near that sophisticated at your age.

Please keep in mind that many people are very good at doing certain things which does not in any way translate in being good at teaching others how to be good at it. I feel that requires no further explanation but as I mentioned before, learning how to Teach is equally as important as teaching. Just think about how many times you've heard or maybe said, "The Teacher was horrible" or "The Teacher was excellent" ? Good Teachers can make sense of the most complex concepts while Bad Teachers can make the easiest of operations seem mind-boggling.
Lastly I just need to point out that in using the term "Bad or Good" is actually an ineffective metaphor given I've never subscribed to the accepted meaning of those words. Good is actually pleasing to the beholder whereas Bad can be equated as disconcerting or objectionable. *If you have three Students that gather for your Tennis Tutoring, all hearing & seeing your instructions at the same time, One could excel beyond your belief lending you to think you're just an excellent Instructor, another could simply not get any portion of what you are trying to convey leaving you to consider either you have to revamp your methods or Tennis just isn't for them and the third appears to understand but fails to execute where again you could possibly take that person's results as a reflection of your ability to instruct but could in fact be they just aren't cutout for Tennis or have physical attributes that would require you to make adjustments to how you approach their needs.

My point FedFan is, regardless of how your students demonstrate what they've just been shown, don't take it personally if you truly believe you understand what you're putting forth.

Coach

The only acceptable loss is when your opponent was better than you on that given day.
It is never acceptable to lose when your opponent was not.

Not sure about Ireland, but I'm 14 and I train kids between 4-10 years old.
However this a opportunity my club offers so if you do want to teach young kids you probably have to get in contact with the manager of your club and ask about it.
If you actually want to become a fully pledged tennis coach then you are too young.
Also, if you want to become a fully pledged tennis coach put into consideration that the selectors won't let you train a certain age group, they will just give you anybody who trains at the club.